Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ON 23 April 2023, the usually quiet suburb of Morningside woke up to the gruesome murder of 35-year-old Aquiline Sadziwa who took 34 stab wounds to her body and had her head crushed with a boulder.
The horrific act was performed by her estranged husband Pascal Dube who is on the run.
In August 2011, less than 500 metres down the road from the scene of Ms Sadziwas’s murder, Givemore Nyazvingo axed his then 25-year-old wife Lydia Sibanda to death.
He stayed with the corpse for three days and eventually chopped up the body before disposing of it in various parts of the city tied in plastic bags. He pleaded insanity, saying “voices” were telling him to kill his wife as he assumed she was having an affair.
These two incidents read like scripts of a horror movie and are events that any society would love to forget. But what leads to one performing such brutality on a loved one? Is it a case of temporary insanity, uncontrolled emotions or people battling mental health issues in silence?
Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr Nemache Mawere said people who commit such heinous crimes like stabbing someone 34 times usually have untreated mental illnesses that lead them to behave in that manner.
“Such cases like the one mentioned are signs of a disease of the mind, a mental illness that is untreated and has become chronic. Today, the biggest cause of this odd behaviour is the abuse of drugs and dangerous substances and the number one drug causing this is crystal meth. The users, when we see them at the hospital, complain of kutsomwa/ukuhlaselwa (being chased around by invisible people and things) and this at times leads to them committing crimes because they will now be schizophrenic,” said Dr Mawere.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder and when it is active, it causes delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, trouble with thinking, and lack of motivation. Nyazvingo, at the time he committed the offence, said he could hear voices in his head telling him that his wife was having an affair, and when she never answered her phone when it rang in his presence, he attacked her, chopped her body up and dropped the parts in Famona and North End suburbs.
Dr Mawere said this was not only isolated to men saying women who sometimes commit heinous crimes often do so soon after giving birth.
“This can also happen to women who have just given birth; they can get schizophrenia and commit similar crimes. They can get psychotic disorders and end up harming their new-borns,” he said.
In 2020, an Emganwini woman axed her husband three times in the head for failing to support her when she was fighting for a television remote control with her daughter.
A misunderstanding occurred between mother and daughter and the father did not intervene and retired to bed. It is alleged that at around 9.30PM, the mother armed herself with an axe and went to their bedroom where she axed her sleeping husband. However, the woman was taken for psychiatric evaluation by the courts and reports were that she suffered from a mental illness which led to her actions.
Dr Mawere however, said it was essential to raise awareness for mental illness and for people to seek psychiatric help early.
“What we’re encouraging is that people seek help when it’s still early. When they notice changes in their family members’ behaviours, they need to approach us as soon as they can because this can be managed and treated before it reaches dangerous levels where people begin harming others.
“We are currently full at the institution but we’re never too full to assist such kind of people because they can be treated,” he encouraged.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) schizophrenia is characterised by significant impairments in the way reality is perceived. Such persons have persistent delusions as they have fixed beliefs that something is true, despite evidence to the contrary. This could be true for the Emganwini woman who killed her husband as she assumed he did not take her side when he was fighting with their daughter over the remote control.
These people also have persistent hallucinations where the person may hear, smell, see, touch, or feel things that are not there, as expounded by Dr Mawere who said patients who are mentally unsound often say they are being followed by people and things that others cannot see.
People close to Pascal Dube who stabbed his wife said he often appeared at the deceased’s house demanding that she opens for him but she would turn him away and he would sleep in a disused garage at Ms Sadziwa’s lodgings and refuse to go away. This is typical of the indicators of schizophrenic persons whom the WHO say exhibit highly disorganised behaviour.
“The person does things that appear bizarre or purposeless, or the person has unpredictable or inappropriate emotional responses that interfere with their ability to organise their behaviour,” according to WHO.
People with schizophrenia often also experience persistent difficulties with their cognitive or thinking skills, such as memory, attention, and problem-solving.
At least one-third of people with schizophrenia experience complete remission of symptoms. Some people with schizophrenia experience worsening and remission of symptoms periodically throughout their lives, others a gradual worsening of symptoms over time.
Dr Noreen Wini-Darii from the Zimbabwe Psychological Association suggests that poor emotional management can contribute to some of these crimes of passion.
“When one fails to manage their emotions, it’s possible to lash out in the heat of the moment and regret soon after. In some cases, people may be battling undiagnosed mental illnesses which may be exacerbated in the face of a stressor. It’s important that family members have ways of resolving disputes that promote harmony. There is also a need to improve access to mental health services,” she said.
Ward 5 Councillor Felix Mhaka, spoke about the need for sound conflict resolution in the wake of disturbing events like murder.
“When we have children, we anticipate that they will grow up and be good examples but at times we have one or two bad apples in our families. As parents, we don’t wish that any of our children become black sheep. However, when our children or relatives do callous things that we don’t anticipate, we expect that as parents we visit the aggrieved families, pay our condolences and ask for forgiveness. Even if you as a parent whose child committed the crime can’t go, you send emissaries such as community leaders, councillors, church leaders, and elderly people that are respected in the community,” said Clr Mhaka.
Pascal Dube’s family reportedly did not go to the Sadziwa family to offer their condolences weeks after her death.
“We do this in our African culture as a sign of showing remorse for the acts done by our family members. We have to ensure we resolve such things as this can befall anyone, a life was lost, and we don’t know what the cause of the tragedy was. Perhaps they had their differences but today we have the Victim Friendly Unit that falls under the Zimbabwe Republic Police that’s there to assist feuding people. That’s a channel to find solutions to some problems people may be facing in their homes. As a last resort, people may go their separate ways while they’re still both alive than to fight and kill,” said Clr Mhaka.
He said domestic violence was not an option as it often leads to unnecessary loss of life.
There have been several calls to decentralise mental health services to the district level in Zimbabwe and treat patients in outpatient and community-based facilities rather than institutionalising them in inpatient specialist facilities.
Zimbabwe’s National Mental Health Policy describes decentralisation as one of the key guiding principles to the sustainability of mental health, noting that it will increase access to mental health services, particularly in rural areas. — @NyembeziMu
derick.khumalo